What can I do, right now, with what I have, where I am?
This is the question that came to me, today, as I was walking home from Mass, praying and meditating on my own vocational discernment. Despite the many errors and sins of my past, God has cleared a path for me to pursue what I once would have said was my destiny. Yet, as I have mentioned before, I question whether that is actually to encourage me to do so, or to test my faith.
This does not, of course, temper my zeal for the Gospel. It does nothing to assuage my desire to serve God, as I spend every day “busy bee-ing” about for the things of the world, wishing I could be rapt in prayer or celebrating the Mass. But this, then, brings to my mind the words written by St. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians:
So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. Avoid giving offense, whether to Jews or Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in every way, not seeking my own benefit but that of the many, that they may be saved. (1 Cor. 10: 31-33)
Do everything for the glory of God. What is stopping me (or anyone else, for that matter) from doing this, anyway? We have become so accustomed to keeping our spiritual life in a silo, apart from our “day to day.” We enter into the silo on Sundays for the Mass, and then leave again and leave behind all that we might have carried into the world. What good does that do? Are we not, in that case, just taking advantage of God’s generosity and grace? What do we expect to get from it, if we do not carry it out into the world?
Have we become hearers, only, of the word (c.f., James 1:22-24)? If we don’t make the effort, where then are the works by which we might demonstrate our faith (c.f., James 2:18)? Has our faith become vanity, our religion defiled, that we now deceive ourselves (James 1:26-27)?
Let us, then, listen to the words of Christ: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). And what are Jesus’ commandments, but to “love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (John 13:34). In the whole of his earthly ministry, in fact, Jesus only prescribed two commandments, in which all others are included: love God and love your neighbor (Matthew 22:34-40). Going to Mass only partially satisfies the love of God, inasmuch as we are taking time out of our day to devote to Him. But how much more do we devote to mammon? Forty hours a week, and then some? And how much do we devote to our brothers and sisters, to the poor and the sick and the elderly? If we are being honest with ourselves, it is not much.
So, again, I ask, where are the works by which we might demonstrate our faith?
It is no longer enough, for me, to say, “I want to give my life to God,” “I want to be a monk or a priest,” “I want to start a community.” My soul yearns to do God’s will, not just just discuss it, not just to plan for it, not just to assume that a few moments a day will suffice to fulfill my duty. And, thus, I ask…
What can I do, right now, with what I have, where I am?
As I sit here, tonight, writing this, only now is it beginning to dawn on me. The greatest saints didn’t do great things because they waited to be “assigned” to a task; they became great because they recognized the position God put them in and listened to His urging and exhortation to action, wherever and whenever they were in the moment. And, crucially, they put God – not themselves and their wants and needs – first.
How can we reorient that forty hours of work time each week to glorify God? How can I minister to the sick and underprivileged, even though I can’t offer them a bed, nor do I have a kitchen to provide community meals from? How can I change my attitude and my outlook on the things I must do every day, so that I am no longer making time to go into my spiritual silo for prayer and Mass and, instead, bring prayer and Mass out into the world with me? How can I learn to pray without ceasing – beginning with learning to transform things that are not typically “prayerful” activities into prayer-full activities?
This week, I will pray for guidance and wisdom to understand these things. I hope you will join me. The world, at large, is in desperate need of spiritual renewal. The Church has obliged in all the ways She can in recent years, particularly under the papal leadership of Francis and, now, Leo XIV; but we must be mindful of our own responsibility in catalyzing this renewal. It’s very much a “lead a horse to water” scenario. They have shown us the well; we must make the effort to drink from it.
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